I trust, beloved brethren, most of us are somewhat familiar with what we have here. It is the light provided for the inside of the tabernacle where the priests served, where no exterior light entered: I am not talking of the holiest of holies. It is as heavenly people that this speaks to us. If we are not that, we are not Christians—we cannot pretend to it. There is no room for humility, as to how far, or how near, we shall be to God. We are either "accepted in the Beloved," or nothing—in Him who has passed into the heavens, and hence we belong there; "As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." We are now heavenly people, but "the image of the heavenly" is future for us. As He is then, as we read in the church of Laodicea, "the beginning of the creation of God," so are we of His creation; hence it is no question of attainment—there is no ladder for us to go up or down. This is the way, therefore, scripture speaks to us.
Here, then, you find the candlestick, which is Christ, and we shall find that the light is intimately connected with the candlestick; indeed, the light was to fall upon the candlestick as we see in verse 37. So the light which belongs to us is from Him, and is thrown to Him, to display His glory. Let us see also that the candlestick is not merely Christ, but Christ ascended. As to its material, it was of " beaten gold"—a beautiful combination. Beaten gold may appear a contradiction. I think gold typifies divine glory, or, as some say, divine righteousness. You have the expression in Heb. 9, "the cherubims of glory."
Surely the apostle was not referring to the brightness merely. They are the attributes of God, in which He
displays Himself. Christ is the manifestation of God in the fullest way, not merely to us, but to all His creatures. No angel could ever have known the heart of God by any outward display, but Christ came down to the dust of death therein to show it, and only there could it have been shown. It is like a bird that naturally flies in the heavens coming down to die, choosing an earthly place in which to die (see Lev. 14:66As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water: (Leviticus 14:6)); so Christ could not die in heaven. Christ dying full of the Holy Ghost is the meaning of being "killed over running water." It was not God acting as a patron, nor merely God showing us power, but God displayed in sacrifice. That is why you have the beautiful connection we have here in the "beaten" gold. The moment you think of glory beaten, it seems like a contradiction, but when one thinks of Christ in His painful acts, we can understand it. Here we see One in suffering, and in pains and labor working out the display of God.
We will now look at "the bowls made like unto almonds." Everywhere in the candlestick is the knop and flower found, three times over, and the bowls, or almonds, come together in the center; so that, if you go across with the eye, you will find there are seven almonds. The branches are the attributes of Christ. I only mention it to show how the whole thing is made up of almonds, for almonds are everywhere; hence God has something very important to tell us in it. Now, who was it that could carry such a people as Israel, after the sin of Korah, through the wilderness? We read of Aaron's rod—a mere dead thing—it used to live once, but is dead now, and it starts into life again in the sanctuary, and the form of the fruit it takes is that of the almond. It is a wonderful plant. The word almond, in Hebrew, means "wakeful," for it is the first tree to bud after the winter. You will see how strikingly this applies to Christ as once dead, but now risen, and who Himself is the pledge of all that will come hereafter.
We have in Revelation the seven lamps, in connection with "the seven spirits that are before the throne," and "the first-begotten of the dead." This is just the almond. The first-born from the dead, and "the beginning of the creation of God." He comes up from death, but not alone. We find our life by coming up with Him. Coming up out of death, Christ has taken the place of the first one of the new creation—"the beginning of the creation of God."
As man in glory, He has received the promise of the Holy Ghost. He had it for Himself down here, but in order to give it to us, it must be by getting it from above. Although the Holy Ghost is on earth, it is still here the lamps upon Christ in glory. Therefore all the light of the sanctuary is for us. The apostle will have it that Christianity is a mystery, but it is not mysterious to those who know it, and in Col. 2 The apostle speaks of "the mystery of God, in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." There is nothing outside of that heavenly sanctuary into which Christ is gone, or apart from the light of the candlestick.
"In his light," beloved, shall we see light, and "as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." Clearly this shows us the whole thing; and let me say here, what scripture calls the "old leaven" in Corinthians is the introduction of the old things into the new. It was a piece of the old dough that was to be put into the new, and the two did not agree. This is the "old leaven." We are to keep to the new things. We read, "Henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more." Why not? Because He is not in it to know. Where is He, then? In heaven, and we are associated with Him there. We have got Christ in glory, not on earth after the flesh. The light is a new light, and a heavenly one.
Now let us put it to ourselves. How far do we find it true? We find Christians dropping down to the ordinary light of men. See how many have not a bad conscience, perhaps in their daily work, just because they have not broken the moral law, which is all very nice, of course; but, beloved, this is no new measure whatever, no rightful measure by which to judge ourselves; and yet, if we were to look at ourselves in the heavenly light, we should see that we were not in Christ's light all through the day, very often. Are we all free of the desire of getting on in the world? When we go to our houses of business, is our desire to make money? The moment we do this, we have brought the level of Christ down.
You say, "This is hard." But if we are in the heavenlies, we need not be anxious to make money to meet our need, we can leave all this in our Father's hands, for Him to give us what is best. Are we not here to display to all the light of Christ, and to preach how sufficient He is to us? Everything depends upon the light, and where it comes from. The light of day will not do for us. Could you imagine (and I say so reverently) it an object for the Lord Jesus to make money, and yet, could you, alas! imagine yourselves having it? We are shocked at the thought of it for Christ—why not for ourselves?
But let us look a little more at what we have here in this wonderful gold candlestick. There are six branches, and one in the center. The branches are in pairs, but they come from the central stem. Compare this with the description given of Christ in Isa. 11:1-31And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; 3And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: (Isaiah 11:1‑3). This, of course, is Christ on earth, but the same Christ is in heaven. Notice, you get the Spirit in the plural—"seven spirits" in Revelation, but here it is the Spirit of Jehovah, mark, by itself, but acting according to the figure, given in the candlestick, of pairs. "The Spirit of wisdom and understanding" is one pair; then " the Spirit of counsel and might" is another pair; and, finally, " the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah" is the last pair; but note that the stem of these three pairs is "the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him." This one is single.
Now, the light of the sanctuary was reflected and displayed on the breast-plate of the high priest, in which were the Urim and Thummim. If you see God displayed, it is always in connection with His people, maintaining them and blessing them. The cross is the perfect and unchangeable display of God in grace—in it He was completely glorified, and it was for us. Notice that the branches all proceed from the central stem. It is God in relation to His people, through Christ, that the candlestick presents to us, and thus He is "the true and faithful Witness." A priest could only get an answer through the Urim and Thummim. For us this answers to 1 John 2:1, 2: " If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
We will now look a little at our chapter in Numbers. Numbers is the practical book, We find there directions for our walk. Constantly in this book you find, if your eyes are on a thing, God tells you how He looks at it—lets you see it from His point of view. Notice how strikingly Christ is put before us here, too, in the "beaten gold"—Christ in the world glorifying God in pain and sorrow. Do we want our path pointed out for us? The word says, "Walk ye in him. Instead of having to look down to see the path for our feet, we have to look up; and as surely as we look, up, and see Christ at God's right hand, so surely will our steps be led right. Christ is not only the pattern of our path, but our object, and that by which we may find it. Ours is a path which travels direct to a fixed point beyond; we are not “wanderers," but we are "pilgrims."
The Lord keep us walking by the light of the sanctuary, and may we never forget that "He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also to walk even as he walked." F. W. G.
Croydon.
The object in the glory forms the life which answers to it here below. Were a light at the end of a long straight alley, I never have the light itself till I am arrived there; but I have ever-increasing light in proportion as I go forward; I know it better, ''I am more in the light myself. Thus it is with a glorified Christ, and such is Christian life.